Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series Can’t Handle the Truth as Gregg Satterlee Captures 10k River Valley 40; Devin Hart Back On Top in Limited Late Model Action

Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series Can’t Handle the Truth as Gregg Satterlee Captures 10k River Valley 40; Devin Hart Back On Top in Limited Late Model Action

By- Justin Snyder

Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, Penn. (April 11, 2021) – “The truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” – Elvis Presley.

Gregg “The Truth” Satterlee started off his night with a bang literally and ended his night with a $10,000 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory Sunday on a chilly evening at the Port Royal Speedway for the River Valley 40.

Satterlee took advantage of contact between Kyle Larson and Earl Pearson Jr. that saw Larson spin and Pearson head to the pits with a mechanical issue to inherit the top spot and lead the final 15 laps to claim the victory for the Krill Recycling, LLC Port Royal locals. All this came after Satterlee got into the outside guardrail in turn two on the opening lap of his heat race, but still persevered to qualify for the A-main by finishing second with a damaged racecar.

“I honestly thought with that deal in our heat race I had ruined our night and everything just fell our way tonight,” said Satterlee. “I’m really thankful that things fell our way. I’ve been wanting a Lucas Oil win at this place as this is definitely our favorite place to race at and I love competing in front of these fans and this feels awesome to finally secure a win.”

Pearson Jr was the night’s $250 Lauver’s Concessions Fast Time Award winner and he followed that up by dominating in his heat race to claim the pole position for the A-main event. Beside him was the defending NASCAR Champion and weekend invader, Kyle Larson, who took the lead coming out of turn four to lead the opening lap of the 40 lap event.

Larson and Pearson Jr. settled into their respective positions over the first four circuits, while fourth-place starter Brandon Sheppard took over the final podium position on lap five. Satterlee, who started sixth on the grid, moved into the fourth position on lap six.

The leaders hit the tail end of the field on lap 12 and the pair put on a battle for the ages for the top spot with Larson using the top of the Speedway and Pearson rolling through the middle. Larson made multiple daring moves to dispatch of the lappers in front of him to put room between himself and the runner-up, but each time Pearson Jr. came roaring back for more.

Meanwhile, Satterlee had gotten by Sheppard for the third position and the two were lurking just behind the top two ready to pounce.
Satterlee had moved to the top of the Speedway and it looked like the Port Royal fans were soon to be in for a four-way dogfight, when Pearson and Larson made contact on the inside of turn’s three and four. As a result of the contact, Larson looped around on the exit of the turn just in front of Satterlee to bring out the caution.

While Larson entered the hot pit to make repairs and rejoined the field, Pearson Jr. pulled off the track on the backstretch while under yellow with reported steering mechanical issues. As a result Satterlee was gifted the lead, much to the delight of the local fans in attendance.

“Honestly from the center of turn three until you get to turn four I couldn’t see anything in front of me as the sun was just blinding,” said Satterlee.”I could see one of them spinning and luckily Larson was far enough around the corner or I wouldn’t have seen him. I guess this was just our lucky day.”

From there Satterlee was in a league of his own. While Sheppard, Tim McCreadie and a hard charging Jimmy Owens put on a battle behind him, Satterlee left little doubt that he would find his way to victory lane at the end of the night.

The Indiana, Pa. native took the checkered flag by nearly 4.0 seconds to claim his third career Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model victory over Sheppard, McCreadie, Owens and Tyler Erb. Ashton Winger, Ross Robinson, Colton Flinner, Matt Cosner and Max Blair rounded out the top 10.

“The track was in really good shape and we raced everywhere across this track all night,” said Satterlee. “There’s no other race track like this one around and it shows as they always have packed stands and a full field of cars. I appreciate the extra effort the track puts in and it’s awesome to get a win.”

For Sheppard he was competitive and it continued what has been a consistent start to the 2022 season for his team.

“It was a good track and a good race, but I was hanging on as good as I could,” said Sheppard. “I don’t know if I had anything for those guys and then Gregg got out front and he was just really good. I wasn’t real sure starting off the day that we’d even race tonight, but we got it in and I’ll take a runner-up.”

Super Late Model Lucas Oil (Results): 1-Satterlee.G 2-Sheppard.B 3-McCreadie.T 4-Owens.J 5-Erb.T 6-Winger.A 7-Robinson.R 8-Flinner.C 9-Cosner.M 10-Blair.M 11-Clanton.S 12-Thornton.R(Jr.) 13-Moran.D 14-Yoder.D 15-Stuhler.G 16-Larson.K 17-Lee.K 18-Alberson.G 19-Hughes.S 20-O’Neal.H 21-Berry.A 22-Wilson.D 23-Eckert.R 24-Pearson.E(Jr) 25-Zeigler.M 26-Feathers.T ________________________________________________________________________________
Devin Hart held off a hard charging Dillan Stake and Andrew Yoder to pick up his first Selinsgrove Ford Limited Late Model victory of the 2022 racing season Saturday evening. The win was worth $1500.

Hart, who’s the defending track champion in the division, started on the outside front row and took the lead over pole sitter Matt Murphy to start the 25-lap A-main event.

The final caution of the event flew with nine laps remaining in the event and Trent Brenneman was sitting in second at the time. Brenneman was no challenge for Hart on the restart and with four laps remaining Stake, who won the $2000 season opener for the divisions last weekend, took the runner-up position coming out of turn four.

Yoder followed suit to take his seat on the podium with three laps remaining and both he and Stake attempted to make last ditch efforts to claim the victory. However, Hart was able to hold on for his seventh career victory in the division. Hart also owns five career victories in the Econo Late Model divisions as well.

Brenneman and Todd Snook completed the top five and it was Snook earning the $100 Dedicated Nursing Associates Hard Charger award after starting 18th on the grid. Taylor Farling, Shawn Shoemaker, Ryan Zook, Kenny Yoder and Daulton Bigler rounded out the top ten.

Limited Late Model Results- 1. Devin Hart, 2. Dillan Stake, 3. Andrew Yoder, 4. Trent Brenneman, 5. Todd Snook, 6. Taylor Farling, 7. Shawn Shoemaker, 8. Ryan Zook, 9. Kenny Yoder, 10. Daulton Bigler, 11. Matt Parks, 12. Joey Hoffer, 13. Jeremy Ott, 14. Ethan Beasom, 15. Matt Murphy, 16. Maddox Smith, 17. Jared Fulkroad, 18. Steve Scaife, 19. Jim McBee, 20. Kyle Bachman, 21. Barry Miller, 22. Cayden Ranck, 23. Dan Condo, 24. John Schoch